Tag Archives: 5k

While this giveaway is for a registration to the Rochester Color Vibe, Color Vibe races happen ALL across the nation– in fact, their itinerary is growing rapidly (they’re hoping to be in two cities a weekend as they grow in popularity!)

I am SO excited to share this giveaway with you as it holds a place very near and dear in my heart.

Here’s the deal: The kind people at The Color Vibe have generously provided me with two free registrations to the 2013 Rochester Color Vibe (April 20th!). In order to enter-to-win, all you need to do is comment on this post at any point between tonight, March 15th and NEXT WEDNESDAY (March 20th) to be entered into a random drawing! Just tell me why you want to run in a 5k and why The Color Vibe sounds like fun to you.

Special: Get an EXTRA entry into the drawing by sending a tweet to #thecolorvibe and #5ksCoffeeBeans to the effect of “Hoping to win a registration to the Rochester 5k!” Then, comment on this post to let me know you did it and you’ll get an extra entry.

What’s new at the 2013 Run?

After speaking with a Color Vibe team member, he filled me in on some exciting changes that were coming with the Rochester run this year! (I assure you, the run was a BLAST last year, but apparently, things are just getting bigger and better!!)

Think Dance Party. Everything from the music at the event to the number of runners will be huge this year! This year, the sound and music will be handled by a major production company– complete with a DJ and emcee for the entirety of the event.

The number of runners has blasted from about 1,500 to nearly seven thousand.

There will be more color. More sound. More people and way more fun.

Get your white t-shirts, get your white shorts, grab your friends and get ready to enter.

Remember, you have until WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20th to enter. I will announce the winners that night (there are two passes available and there will be TWO different winners!).

And now, for those who care, just a little bit about how I came to discover the Color Vibe in 2012.

At the end of my senior year, I fell into a bad, bad cycle. I stopped going to the gym because I just didn’t have enough time anymore. The stress and perpetual presence of fast-food at the dining halls and unlimited access to Starbucks (in all of its pastry/high-calorie latté glory) took a toll on me. I hated the way that I was treating my body and I didn’t like the way I looked.

As soon as I was re-settled back at home, I knew that it was time to make some serious changes. I had always been a healthy eater and I loved going to the gym, but a combination of over-scheduling, high-stress and unique circumstances just made gym time unrealistic and eating healthfully more trouble than I cared to grapple with.

Running in a “race” had always been on my radar as a “someday” goal. I thought about 10ks, half marathons, but decided to start simple with a 5k- the 3.1 distance. I knew that I had to find a fun one to motivate me. That’s when I stumbled across The Color Vibe. Immediately I registered. I talked two friends into doing it with me and the rest is history.

I used the “Couch to 5k” training program (I was NOT a runner at this point and needed simple “workouts” outlined for me). It was insanely helpful (there is a mobile app too!)

When it came time to Color Vibe, I was rearing and ready to go. I felt better than I had in many, many months and I was looking forward to the event.

As soon as we arrived at the site, the energy was electric. The parking lot was abuzz, people were donning their FULLY white outfits and some silly costumes. (I was that weird girl doing warmups in the parking lot to keep up the energy level…)

The course was simple. The run was quick. When the race was over, the color party was so much fun.

Friends were dousing friends in color powder, the music was blasting, and people were rolling around on the pavement to soak up every last ounce of color.

The Color Vibe is unlike anything I have ever experienced before. The positivity and high energy of the event left me on that famous “runner’s high” for days. I cannot wait to do it all again, and I hope you’ll join me!

Guys, today, I get to make the announcement that I have been waiting to make for WEEKS. Stay tuned.

I spent 95% of my day absolutely convinced that it was Thursday and the other 5% falling asleep standing up. I hope YOU had a fantastic day sans-confusion.

Tonight, I had a babysitting gig for myself after work. Ever since accepting my new position, I love my babysitting gigs even more than I did before. Now that my professional life has taken quite a turn (different industry, different feel, very different location), the sporadic hours of babysitting here and there are a welcome change of pace. Spending time with the kids who I’ve known (in many cases) since they were born is so much fun. They’re all growing up and learning new things and getting taller and it’s so great to have that little built-in reality check in my life. Whenever I babysit, especially my youngest charges, I am always shocked by how many different sides of myself come through in that role. One moment, I’m playing dress-up, or putting on a puppet show with Strawberry Shortcake dolls, and the next, it’s all about making boo-boos disappear and promising that everything will be OK. Suddenly, I am the one checking under the bed and reassuring them that the sounds that they hear are trains, or birds– anything but monsters. It really is a very cool experience.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, I was falling asleep ALL day today. Considering the fact that each time my computer took just a little too long to load today, I feared that I would fall asleep on my desk, I made a pit stop after work: a pit stop to Starbucks. That’s right, I BROKE MY OWN RULE. The “Only Buy Starbucks on Meeting Mornings” rule. Bad Brittany. But let me tell you, if you are in desperate need of a serious jumpstart, allow me to recommend the Café Misto with a pump of vanilla syrup and one shot of espresso. WOAH baby. Goooood morning, America.

The rest of my night was quickly consumed with a blurry dinner that consisted of a bagel and some scrambled eggs.

AND NOW. For the big announcement.

5ks & Coffee Beans will be holding its FIRST EVER, real-life GIVEAWAY!

TOMORROW, MARCH 14th, I will be presenting the giveaway and providing you with several different options for entering. This is a good one, friends. Especially for my NYS running buddies. It’s something that is very near and dear to my heart and that I am so, so excited to be offering to you.

I’ll give you a hint…

Get yourself some coffee beans, because it’s time to 5k…

Stay tuned, readers! Be sure to visit tomorrow for the official details!!

I cannot describe how much I am LOVING bumming around these days. I typically love to stay busy and keep myself occupied with work (or school in previous instances!), but right now, I can’t seem to get enough of reading, knitting and watching Full House. (<—Who said that?)

I wanted to share some fun fitness-related gifts that I received for Christmas!

The first one, is a Fitbit! I have seen these reviewed on a couple of different shows and advertised in a few fitness magazines, but I didn’t quite understand what they did until recently. It is a very cool little gadget!

This version of it can do a bunch of different things including: track your sleep (I wore it to bed last night and evidently, my sleep was 98% efficient! Additionally it also took me eight minutes to fall asleep. Fascinating, eh?), count your steps and stairs, help you maintain a caloric goal, and track your calories in!

It is super easy to set-up and includes a nifty little wireless hub that you plug into your computer for easy-syncing capabilities. Fitbit also has an app for smartphones and a super easy-to-use dashboard online. I am very excited to test out all of it’s different functions, but for now I’ve only used the sleep tracker but when I opened up the dashboard this morning, it looked like this:

(Don’t ask why that says 2:57 am. I swear I never do that!!! Heh. Vacation, anyone?)

I will let you know what other cool things I discover about it as I figure it out a little better!

Next up, my brother-in-law gave me a participant registration ticket for a 5k in the spring! I am so excited and the timing is just perfect to jump start my year of racing that I have planned. I thought that was a very cool gift and very unique! It’s not something that

Looks like crazy-jungle-woman-5k-racer will be back again!!

2013 is going to be a big year for running! I am very excited to have you guys follow along with the running mayhem throughout the new year! Even though I have what may be the EPITOME of a love-hate relationship with running, it makes me feel great when I’m doing it regularly. It clears my mind and it improves my mood for the whole day. An added bonus, I felt great about the way I looked when I was running regularly in the summer and fall. Unlike when I started to hit the strength training hard, I felt like running was hitting ALL of the “trouble zones.”

Alright guys, hold on to your hats! This is going to be a long one. (With lots of pictures!)

It has finally come and gone. The day we’ve all been waiting for. The 5k day!

The amount of energy I had before the race was unreal. Katie thought I was a nut job! (Not that she didn’t think that already 😉 ). I am 100% hooked. For anyone who “hates running” or has never tried a race before, I can’t recommend it enough. (If you’re able to, that is. Remember, I have absolutely no licensed or certified reason to give anyone fitness or exercise advice!) I was flying on nerves up until we got to the race site and once we landed there, there was SO much positive energy that it was impossible NOT to be happy and excited!

It all started bright and early this morning when I headed out to pick up Katie and Josh, my running companions!

First we headed to Starbucks to fuel up!

(To fuel up AND get our fight faces on. Naturally.)

Next it was off to pick up Joshua!

Josh, who I might add is in the process of training for a triathlon so he is an old pro at all of this. He was very good about NOT showing off the fact that he could quite literally run circles around me ;-). ALSO, I have to take back everything I said last night about how a crane would probably be necessary to drag him out of bed! He texted ME and asked if I was there yet! Nuttiness!

So after a series of the world’s most ridiculous parking lot warmups and blasting pre-race songs at the top of my poor little car’s volume, it was go time!

(I was actually the only one doing any ridiculous parking lot warm-ups. Josh was busy making fun of my jumping jacks, push-ups, high knees AND lunges and Katie was capturing it all on camera 😉 )

Next came the run!

For some unexplained reason, it turns out that self-shots taken a) on an iPhone b) in reverse camera mode c) in the middle of a race and d) IN MOTION don’t turn out particularly well, so I’ll spare you those shots 😛

I must say, it was quite a bit harder than I thought it was going to be, but I loved every minute of it and finished in under 30 minutes. I was definitely happy with my time and it was SO much fun! The music and paint and friends made it 100% worth it. It’s so funny to think that after a whole summer of waiting for this one day to come, it’s over! I think I may have caught the running bug, because I can’t wait to find my next race. Unfortunately, it probably won’t be until next spring, but that means that I better make it a good one! It was such a feeling of accomplishment.

In another post sometime soon, I will talk more about the actual training and technical aspects of the whole thing. Today’s post was more of a chronicling of just today. What I will say right now is that if you DO plan to run a race, or try to start training, pick a race and REGISTER for it. Having a specific date in mind served as a great motivator for me. It was also nice to have a specific goal to work towards. Also, most importantly, make sure it’s a FUN one! This was a very short race so I knew that I’d be able to tackle the distance, but having fun while I was doing it was something I really didn’t expect! There were colors galore, people cheering and ringing bells and lots and lots of music at the finish line! It was like a giant party! Pick an event that will keep you moving through the whole thing. If the Color Vibe run comes to a city near you, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s 110% worth traveling for!

Not to sound too cheesy, but I was cruising on that elusive runner’s high all day long. The pictures with friends from today make me so, so happy when I see them. My family even came to the finish line to see me which was great! People who weren’t actually there made it even more special with texts before and after wishing me luck and asking how it went. Even though it certainly wasn’t any marathon or triathlon I plowed through today, it was VERY important to me and they all knew that. I am definitely very lucky!

I told my mom that getting me to change my clothes/ wash that color off would be like trying to make a little kid wipe away a painted face before bed. I’d wear that outfit for days if I could! (Don’t worry, I know I can’t. 😛 )

Now it’s time to head back to work. I’ve actually missed it these last few days!!

(This is the post that was supposed to happen yesterday. Thanks internet 😉 )

Written 8/31.

HOLY ANNOYED.

For those of you who didn’t catch last night’s 11:30 pm post (which I ultimately created on my IPHONE after HOURS of struggling with this ridiculous internet/router/wi-fi/Ethernet/electronic voo-doo situation.) Of course the NIGHT BEFORE THE 5k my internet would decide to crap out! Nonsense. I tried everything you could imagine! Unplugging things, re-wiring things, re-starting things… nothing worked. Grrrrrr.

Anyway, the show must go on! So I’m writing this gem as a Word document and I’ll just upload it tomorrow! There’s LOTS of business to cover today!

First thing’s first. Tomorrow happens to be one of my very best friend’s 23rd birthday!

Happy birthday Chloe!!

I can’t BELIEVE my friends are starting to turn 23! It seems like yesterday we couldn’t believe we were turning 16 and could finally learn how to drive. It’s so crazy how time flies!

In other news, I have finally returned from my adventure (part 2!) One of the first things that I did when I got back this afternoon was turning in my Boot Camp registration! That’s right friends, starting next week, I’ll be taking a Boot Camp fitness class once a week! Very, very early in the morning. I’m so psyched! All I can think about is that scene from Bridesmaids where Annie and Lillian are crashing that terrifying boot camp that suddenly turns into interpretive dancing in the park. Gosh I love that movie. (Probably shouldn’t admit that…)

I got a t-shirt, some nifty sunglasses and (drum roll pleeeeeeeeaseeeeee) my FIRST EVER RACE BIB! The whole thing was actually quite anticlimactic, but that didn’t stop me from taking a couple of quick pics in the parking lot anyway 😉

Got my number!

I am so nervously excited I don’t know what to do with myself! Interestingly, it’s actually a very similar feeling to how I always felt the night before school started. It’s an anxious anticipation coupled with the compulsive need to get things ready! I’ve been collecting safety pins (somehow, I actually managed to find four. Yay for being able to attach my bib to my shirt!), setting out my outfit and planning what I’ll have for breakfast in the morning. It’s quite possible that I have actually managed to re-create that back-to-school excitement that I’ve so been missing!

As I briefly mentioned, I’m going to be running the race with two of my former roommates, so the plan for tomorrow morning is to head out bright and early to pick up Katie and fuel ourselves with my favorite thing ever: a cup of coffee. Then we’ll set out to find Josh! I fully anticipate the need for backup in actually dragging sir Joshua to the race. A lot of backup. Likely in the form of a crane that will be used to pry him from his bed and deposit him in my car!

I did find my way to the gym tonight and completed an easy run for about 15 minutes just to remind my body of what runningIS after several days without it! It was actually quite a struggle, but what are we gonna do? The time has come! No looking back!

Naturally, I’ll be back tomorrow! (Errr…later, at this point I suppose.) With pictures and stories and things like that. Still can’t believe how quickly September has crept up on me!